Following the continued closure of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology due to the inability of the owner states to pay salary of workers, for more than 8 months, the Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has berated the government of Governor Abiola Ajimobi and his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC.
A statement by its administrative secretary, Hon. Asimiyu Alarape, the party stated that the closure of the institutions was only a part of a whole problem of negligence, lack of innovative ideas and poor management of the education sector in the state, which it said has culminated in the regression of the state among its contemporaries in terms of education. The present 26th position of Oyo State in the last WASCE is a sad reflection of the rut in the education sector.
According to PDP, instead of establishing a Technical University, whose buildings and infrastructure were solely sponsored by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Oyo State government should have sought the CBN’s assistance in improving the infrastructure and funding of existing tertiary institutions in the state.
The party maintained that despite the vainglory and needless boasts of the governor on May 29, 2017, that he had been able to transform the state, the poor state of the education sector, which is highlighted by the closure of the tertiary institutions and the lack of concern towards education, have robbed the state of its pace-setter status in the area of education.
“It is shameful that Governor Ajimobi, his Osun State counterpart, Mr Rauf Aregbesola and the APC could fail so flagrantly over LAUTECH, a glorious heritage of both states and one of the biggest pointers to Oyo State’s pace-setting status, to a point that students could call on the Federal Government to take over the university.
“We learnt that alumni and well-meaning individuals are now trying to raise money to fund LAUTECH; this is an incontrovertible verdict that Ajimobi and the APC have failed woefully despite tons of promises on education. While we commend the bold initiatives of the advocates of #FundLAUTECH, we call on Ajimobi to resign honourably before some people kick-start a fund-raising for the Oyo State government to pay workers’ salaries and meet other obligations,” the statement read in part.
According to the party, though Governor Ajimobi should have no excuse for letting down the people of the state in the area of education, since he often boasted about his education and international exposure, “his administration has been the poorest in terms of commitment to education and this lack of idea has been rewarded with the poor results being posted by the state in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations in the last six years.”
“The Oyo State government must do all it can to reopen the institutions so that students can return to schools. We are pleading with the APC-led state government not to further destroy the lives of our youths and ruin the education sector in the state by allowing our tertiary institutions to remain under lock; the government must wake up from its post-May 29 deception jamboree slumber by addressing the issues so that our children can return to school. We listened and watched with rapt attention as the governor regaled the helpless citizens of the state with lists of imaginary achievements in the areas of security, infrastructure and others and wondered whether the governor spoke of the same Oyo State, where armed robbery has been on the increase; where schools are underfunded and where the few expensive roads the government constructed are already failing. We need not say how insensitive the present government has been to the plight of workers by owing them salaries of up to four months. We believe that posterity will judge the APC government,” the PDP stated.
